


The Birds and the Bees

by softgrungeprophet



Category: Venom (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comedy, Discussion of fisting, Gen, Implied Sexual Content, Kinda, Laughter, Libraries, M/M, Questions, Sex Education, Teasing, discussion of sex, learning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-22 18:53:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17668199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softgrungeprophet/pseuds/softgrungeprophet
Summary: Eddie and Toxin have a discussion.





	The Birds and the Bees

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a convo between a group of us including myself, Kitausuret, Cannibal_Wings, Spoiler1001 and... idk their AO3 username... Neutunes on tumblr.

[ **I have a question.** ]

Eddie sighed, but he stopped what he was doing, setting aside his pen and paper to turn his attention fully inward. "You? A question? I'm shocked."

Toxin prickled defensively.

"Fine, fine," Eddie crossed his arms. "It's important not to take the world at face value. What do you want to know?"

[ **Last night. I don't understand.** ]

Snippets of the previous evening trickled through their bond—mostly abstract regurgitations of emotions and sensations, arousal and frustration and skin-to-skin contact. Past the second-guessing, past the realization that Flash Thompson might be a good man after all, past Flash interrupting Eddie's threats and promises to offer him a place to stay that night, past the awkward dinner at his apartment.

Past all of that and into the apparently more pressing scene, inelegant and messy: Eddie's hand tangled in Flash's hair and Flash digging his fingers into Eddie's bare back, the two of them grinding together, shirtless on the couch.

The couch on which Eddie now sat, as Flash showered.

Eddie rubbed his forehead with a grumble, trying to ignore the heat inching up the back of his neck. "What about it?"

[ **You were doing it wrong.** ]

"...What."

[ **Listen, I know a thing or two about the birds and the bees and that wasn't it, bucko.** ]

Eddie buried his face in his hands with a groan. "How do you know about the 'birds and the bees,' as you so succinctly put it?"

[ **Believe it or not, the internet is very informative. Pat showed me where to learn.** ]

"Oh, Lord." Eddie straightened against the cushions, scrunching up his nose as he said, "The internet is _not_ informative; the internet is a cesspool of poorly categorized misinformation."

Toxin wound out around his shoulders, twirling down his arms in a red slick and wrapping around the back of his skull and reaching around to cover half of his face. Pooling around his vocal folds, they used his body to speak out loud—" **You say that, but you don't even know how to have sex correctly.** "

They held up Eddie's arm and closed his hand into a fist, accompanied by a fairly intrusive image burned into his head.

Eddie blanched.

"No—" Eddie opened his fingers with some difficulty. "You have _no idea_ what you're talking about."

Toxin snapped his hand back into a fist, fully coating both of his arms in red at this point, and his face as well. " **I've seen the videos. You're supposed to use your hand.** "

Eddie wished he were anywhere but there, in that moment, talking about anything but _fisting_.

But there they were.

"No, you know what—" Eddie stood. "If we're going to do this, we're going to do this for real."

***

They went to the library.

Eddie left a note on Flash's half-height refrigerator: "Will be back later to take advantage of your hospitality –E. Brock" and now they browsed the stacks for the most useful books he could find. Most of them, he passed over. Too many books about puberty and the changes of the body to be useful to Toxin, who would never experience such things. He found one book directed at teens which, judging by the somewhat crass cover, seemed promising, and another specifically geared toward young men, which... while Toxin wasn't male, Eddie certainly was.

But, Eddie being Eddie, he couldn't leave it at the basics—the books intended to be given to teenagers to help them learn on their own—No, he found himself asking the reference librarian to help him find a few books that focused on history, as well.

"It's important to approach everything with context and background information." Eddie settled in one of the armchairs in the reading area, setting his stack of books on the small round table in front of him. "A strong foundation facilitates a strong understanding of even the most trivial subjects."

Toxin performed their own version of settling in, spreading out under his skin and draping around his shoulders as a light cardigan.

They read for a few hours, together, Eddie occasionally fielding a question from Toxin as they tried to clarify a statement or parse something they couldn't quite make sense of.

It was almost nice, actually.

They had bonded in such negative circumstances, harrowing—even traumatizing—for them both, and while Toxin's incessant curiosity had dulled some of the edge off of those memories, especially after Flash had injected them with his temporary dose of suppressant drugs, Eddie and Toxin had not actually had a chance to just... talk.

It reminded Eddie just how young Toxin really was, despite their bluster and insistence to the contrary.

[ **What is... homoerotic?** ]

Case in point.

Eddie let himself laugh, a rarity these days—a very quiet huff as he turned the page. "Well..." He looked out the window a moment, as he considered the question. "It centers on same-sex attraction." He watched a pigeon bob its head, tip-toeing past the window. "I'm not exactly an expert, unfortunately, so I don't think I can offer you much more than that."

But, he thought about the way it felt to interact with Flash Thompson, the day before. Not strictly sexual at first, but mixed in with all that anger and threat there had been something latent underlying the way Eddie leaned into his personal space. And then, of course, it went from latent to outright.

Dry-humping while making out certainly fell under homoeroticism, as far as he was concerned.  

Toxin urged him to look back at the page so they could continue reading.

They barely asked him anything more, other than the occasional sift for the definition of a word they didn't understand, until the sky had begun to darken and Eddie's stomach growled. They hadn't quite finished reading all of the books, but Eddie didn't exactly have a library card anymore, and he wasn't about to steal from one of the few places where he didn't have to worry about being kicked out for staying too long—he put the books onto one of the re-shelving carts, and finally Toxin spoke up—

[ **Why did you agree to ally with Flash Thompson?** ]

Eddie chewed on that thought as he made his way to the exit.

"Why did _you_?"

Toxin gave him a mental poke. [ **I asked you first, pal.** ]

Eddie rolled his eyes.

He didn't really have a good answer. He pushed as much through their mental link—something about the way the guy had treated his students in an emergency. About how angry he had been to see Eddie in the school—the glare that had darkened his brow when Eddie bluffed his way through threats that would have endangered children.

"I don't know." Eddie stuck his hands in his pockets as he walked. "Changed my mind, I guess."

Toxin thrummed.

***

[ **Explain further.** ]

"Well," Eddie jiggled the knob—the door was unlocked, so he opened the door as he said, "Typically, you should ask consent before fisting someone—"

Flash was home.

Sitting on the couch, seemingly in the middle of eating an apple, watching TV.

Now staring at Eddie.

"Hi." Eddie cleared his throat, suddenly hoarse.

Flash took a bite out of his apple. "Hey." He spoke with his mouth full. "Whatcha talkin' about?"

"...Nothing?"

Flash seemed to be struggling not to smile. "You wanna run that by me again?"

"Consent." Eddie shut the door behind him, slowly. "That's all."

"Riiiight..." Flash nodded, still barely holding in his laughter as he said, "You planning on fisting me?"

Eddie almost tripped, taking off his shoe—Toxin caught him and he looked up red-faced, scowling something fierce as he stared Flash down.

"Not to kink shame, or anything, but I just don't think I'm ready for that kind of commitment."

[ **Is he flirting?** ]

"No!" Eddie took a deep breath through his nose. Set his shoes on the shoe rack, and focused on regaining his composure. "No, I am not planning to _fist_ you, and no, this is not flirting."

As if he could not hold it in any longer, Flash burst out laughing—the sound blended with the sensation of Toxin's back-of-the-mind snickering, and Eddie stood with his arms crossed in the middle of the room. He wondered, distantly, if he could re-change his mind and strangle Flash Thompson right then and there, but that seemed in poor taste.

And anyway, this was all Toxin's fault.

He settled for dropping into the armchair near the couch with as stormy an expression as possible, and grunted, "Laugh all you want, but I'm still going to take advantage of you—"

"God, please don't say it like that." Flash scrunched up his face. "I'm begging you."

Eddie shoved his face into his hands. "That's not what I meant and you _know_ it."

"I know, I know—" Flash wiped his eyes and let out a sigh. " _Fuck_. I know."

Everything settled... quieted...

just the low sound of the TV.

Until, of course, Flash looked at Eddie with a wide, playful grin and asked, "Hey, have you ever seen _A Fistful of Dollars_?" and dissolved into a fit of giggles before he could even finish the last word.

It was going to be a long, long night.


End file.
